Click on photo to see full version or larger version. Photos from 2015. The first is of a magnolia tree in my yard on January 31, 2015 before the snowstorm. The other snowy photos were taken on campus the next day (February 1, 2015). The flower macro photos were taken with a cell phone (Galaxy S5) by holding a simple 10x loupe with LED lights. I was very surprised by the results! (I did some editing to increase sharpening, etc. with the app Snapseed.) Scroll to the end of the page to see more. The flowers shown here are Rudbeckia subtomentosa (sweet black-eyed Susan, three photos), Solidago (goldenrod), two flowers the names of which I don't recall, and Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower).

﻿Here's a chess game I played to a draw in 2008 against an International Master (IM). An IM is the level below a Grand Master in chess.The IM is playing white and I am black. The buttons below the image of the chessboard allow you to move through the game or pause the auto-play. We were playing via the Internet Chess Club. The day before I played him using the same opening (an unusual opening called the North Sea Defense) and was beaten by him. Once you know that the IM was 16 at the time and he was playing 20 people simultaneously, it's a less cool accomplishment. Still... I annotated this game but don't know where those notes are now. If I find them, I'll post them.

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Another drawn game against another IM, who is playing white. This was also an exhibition match in which the IM was playing 20 games simultaneously on the Internet Chess Club. This reverts to the same unusual opening as above. Sometimes odd openings can give you a leg up on a stronger player.

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The photos below were taken with a cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S5). The first four photos were taken with a loupe placed in front of the cell phone lens. To make these macro photos come out nicely requires extra light, so I purchased a loupe with an LED light on it (very inexpensive) and, for some, I also placed the flowers under or near a table lamped. The first two photos are of Centaurea cyanus (blue cornflower or bachelor's button), then a Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower), and Salvia azurea (blue sage). The monarch butterfly grew up on some Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed) I planted and is drying its wings on a cosmos flower. In the final photo, Azul the Cat is judging you.